Thursday, September 30, 2010

A bit of 'news' from the Shuttle trying to paint the recent car-parking alterations in a good light. I've commented there, but I'll highlight and expand here.

Restricted season tickets, which are half the price of full season tickets, are now extended to include Vale Road in Stourport, The Avenue car park in Blakedown and the Dog Lane and Gardners Meadow car parks in Bewdley.

Hurray! Wait half of that is to include car-parks that were originally free.

Rail users have the option to park all day on Comberton Place in Kidderminster for £2.50, rather than at the railway station, which costs £3.50.

Except according to the order as presented to the cabinet Comberton Place appears as

Anyone see a £2.50 there? Are we talking about a different Comberton Place not listed in the order?

[Update 1/10 No we're talking about a different order. It seems the Draft proposal offered to the Cabinet has been altered and only just posted.

So Part Comberton Place Surface Vehicle Park, Kidderminster is now
Free - Up to ½ hour
50p - Up to 1 hour
£1.10 - Up to 2 hours
£1.50 - Up to 3 hours
£2.50 - Over 3 hours
£5.00 - 24 to 48 hours
]

Shoppers can park and pop into town for a reduced cost on Stadium Close car park, in Kidderminster, near the Harriers Ground, for 50p for up to two hours.

Well firstly it's interesting to see the concept of "fair and equitable" in place given that trying to stay for that length of time in Stourport would cost 70p and £1 in Bewdley. Secondly what does the actual order state?

For residents, all restricted and full season ticket users can now leave their cars for up to two months, without needing to move them, instead of only being able to park for 23 hours in any 24-hour period.

Firstly there is only one Residents ticket and that's for Bewdley. As such there's no ability to distinguish between a resident holding a season ticket and a non-resident with one. Secondly the ability to park for greater than 24 hours only applies to the long-term car-parks (fair enough). Thirdly this 23 out of 24 parking, while existing for some time, has only recently been enforced. So well done for removing a barrier that didn't affect anyone until you started penalising them for it. To be fair this can be read as 'For residents you can now purchase a ...' however the latter two points remain.

Oops and don't forget the "No return within [X] hours" so you can't just shift your car to another space. You have to leave, drive around, return and hope that the enforcement officer notes that you've moved.

Across the district, visitors and residents can now buy tickets to park for up to two days so they do not have to move their cars if they want to stay overnight or for the weekend.

See above regarding the 23/24 parking. And now a word from our sponsor

"Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of focus on a couple of aspects of the district car parking review and the many positive features have been largely overlooked. Our intention with the review was to make car parking charges fair and equitable across the district and this is what we have achieved with the new arrangements so far."

So what positive features, and who said you've achieved fair and equitable charges? Oh and the final killer

However, this is only the first phase of our review. The second phase will come as the council sets its budget next year and further inconsistencies in parking charges are addressed.

6
comments:

and Flip, i noticed whilst drving around the empty [2 cars] vale road car park this morning that the 23 hour rule is still in place. You can only park for more than 23 hours if you are in receipt of a 48hr ticket. Printed plain as day across the bottom of the charges sticker. Had you noticed this in the order. Not sure its ever been said anywhere.

That's part of my FOI answered though. at least it will be an efficient price rise sign change in Jan as they used stickers.

I spotted your comment on WFA and answered there. Yes the 23/24 hour rule applies except to season tickets and 48 hour tickets on all applicable car-parks as part of the order.

As for the rollover the order lists hours of operation as between 08:00 and 18:30. It doesn't state if this means you can't buy a ticket outside those hours, or if it's free. While in theory this could mean buying two tickets being cheaper than one long period one there's still that "no return" policy in place.